Katherine Hatton honored with PNA’s prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award

Attorney and media law expert Katherine Hatton has been selected as the 2004 recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award of Excellence from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association.

“Somehow the words service and accomplishment just don't quite hit the mark regarding the breath and depth of service Katherine has provided our industry,” said Joseph Sukle, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association chairman and publisher of the Press And Journal in Middletown. “Over three decades she has guided journalists and their newspapers as well as our entire industry through legal minefields - battles that struck at the very heart of our Constitutionally ordained rights and responsibilities."

The Benjamin Franklin Award of Excellence was instituted in 1998 to recognize an individual who, over the course of the past year or two, has performed an outstanding service or accomplishment to benefit the newspaper industry. 

Hatton spent 12 years as the vice president and general counsel of Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. She represented the company in First Amendment and libel issues, as well as provided legal counsel to journalists on a daily basis. Prior to joining the newspaper company, Hatton practiced media law at the law firm formerly known as Kohn, Klein, Nast & Graf in Philadelphia. During the 1970s, Hatton was a reporter and later a columnist with The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer newspaper, while she pursued her legal education.

“Katherine’s 30 years of service to newspapers and dedication to the profession’s values, especially in supporting the First Amendment and defense of truthful reporting in defamation cases exemplified the spirit of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and made her the perfect honoree for the Benjamin Franklin Award,” said Tim Williams, Pennsylvania Newspaper Association President.

In September, Hatton left Philadelphia Newspapers to become vice president and general counsel of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Princeton, N.J. The foundation is one of the nation’s foremost foundations whose mission focuses on health care, contributing $400 million annually to programs supporting health-related issues. “She leaves an industry that continues to wage a war against those who would extinguish the flame of truth and justice,” Sukle added. “But thanks to Katherine Hatton's efforts our industry has registered numerous successes.”

Hatton served on the board of directors for the Pennsylvania First Amendment Coalition and is the former chair of Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. She and her husband, newspaper publisher Richard Billotti, reside in Pennington, N.J.